Sports Radio Interviews

From One Puncher To Another: Kermit Washington Mentors LaGarrette Blount

Kermit Washington will always be most famously remembered for sucker punching Rudy Tomjanovich during a December 9th, 1977 game between Washington’s Lakers and Tomjanovich’s Rockets. Just last week of couse, Oregon Ducks running back LeGarrette Blount was suspended for the season after punching a Boise State Broncos football player at the end of Oregon’s defeat last Thursday night in Boise.  Washington joined 95.5 The Fan in Portland  with Brian Wheelerto talk about the recent conversation he had with Blount and how he’s been able to overcome all the negative press and attention he got from his own incident to have a happy and successful life and how he thinks Blount should stay around the Oregon program and not run from the situation rather than take off for the NFL.

On how he got put in contact with Blount:

“Well you know what, it’s funny, the coach gave me a call and just said would I be willing to talk to him about the situation because I went through something similar and would I mind talking to him. I said no problem because he has a long road ahead of him to try to clear his name. But people shouldn’t give up on him and he shouldn’t give up on himself. But he’s got to do the right things so he won’t be remembered always for something so negative.”

On just how long it might take for Blount to win back his reputation:

“If he was O.J. Simpson or somebody that’s a great athlete that everybody knew. See, I had never heard of him before, but then after the incident I realized how good a player he was and he is. But before that, people in Oregon will remember that but people around the country won’t because I think the majority of people won’t even know his name right now. They can’t remember the name but they can remember the incident. So if he can turn that around with something very positive, I hope he can. But what he has to do, as I said to him, don’t make excuses for what you did. You have to understand the public, so even if you think you have a legitimate excuse or reason why you did it, I said don’t even bring it up. Because people don’t want to hear that. If you just say I’m sorry, in the heat of the moment something happened and I was part of it and I apologize for embarrassing myself, the school, the university and the football team – people will accept that. They may say well he needs to work on that but he’s going in the right direction. As opposed to saying well I did this because. People don’t want to hear that. That’s what I learned thirty-something years ago, so you might as well keep quiet, take your lumps and the longer you keep your mouth shut, people start forgetting about some of the negative things, you hope. Then start doing some good things so they see you’re not just one-dimensional and negative.”

Listen here to Washington on 95.5 The Fan in Portland

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